December 31, 2005
Liberia, Costa RicaOn New Year's Eve, ten of us, took the bus to Liberia, a town about 45 minutes bus ride from Playa Panama. Our Lonely Planet guidebook describes Liberia as a "cowboy's town". At first that meant nothing to us, only a reference that we thought might be associated with the few remaining old colonial/western style structures around the classic main plaza. We sat on a park bench in Liberia, innocently licking our ice cream, when the clip clop of high breed Spanish horses rode in to town in high trot style. We watched a parade of fifty horses and riders promenade the main plaza through Liberia and end up at the outskirts of town in a rancher's open field. Those riding the horses were attired in full cowboy and cowgirl outfits, boots, hats and whips, ranging in age from six to eighty six. It was at least 90 degrees and there was not a bead of sweat to be seen. Amazing! It was definitely the kind of local event that suited a town that prides itself on its image as a cowboy's town.
Like the locals, we bought plenty of huge, ripe, sweet red and black grapes that hung from the fruit stands. These were some of the most succulent grapes that I had ever eaten. The tradition in Mexico and Latin America is to eat within the first minute of the New Year, twelve grapes. If you succeed, your wish would be granted. If you wished for wealth, you wore yellow underwear. If you wished for love, you wore red underwear. Since none of us had either red or yellow underwear on board, we tried to find them in town. All were sold, so we don't know what it meant to start the New Year in old tattered, mended underwear, perhaps, frayed on the edges and empty in the pockets?
Returning after dark, we reached our dinghy and settled in for the night on our individual boats. Following an Encanto tradition, we do not celebrate with a party on New Year's Eve, but instead enjoy the intimacy of family and an early retirement. At midnight to the sound of fireworks all around Bahia Panama came the shining glory of fireworks emulating from the resorts that surrounded the two-mile bay. It was absolutely spectacular to be on our boat, literally surrounded by fireworks displays that glowed for twenty or thirty minutes. The sky was a fire.
It would have been a good time to shoot-off some expired flares and to learn how to use the flare gun (for me, the novice), but we'll have to wait until next year.
We tried to dash down our grapes, but it truly isn't easy to get twelve large, seeded grapes down in under a minute. You try it!
New Year's Day, the group (s/v Our Tern, Soy Libre and Rdreamz) returned to Encanto to enjoy a potluck of finger foods, including Make Your Own Thai wraps.
Fun, Fun, Fun… Laughter abundant… Good wishes to all for a healthy 2006.
Happy New Year 2006 to everyone!The next day, Pam, s/v Rdreamz and Judy ventured by bus and foot to Playa del Coco, where we spent most of our time provisioning in the very well stocked grocery store. The .80 bus ride was NOT on a chicken bus, but a luxury bus. The mile walk down from the bus stop into town was not bad, although pedestrians do not have the right of way in Costa Rica. All pedestrians need to walk defensively. Drivers are like mad men on wheels. They drive fast and they don't care how close they come to nearly hitting a pedestrian. Since there is no sidewalk or safe zone on the roads, we often found ourselves walking in the dirt, several feet off of the pavement. However, the best moment was walking along the roadside with cars zooming by at 40 miles per hour and then catching a glimpse of black blob moving in the trees. On closer inspection, the black blobs were a family of howler monkeys sitting and moving from branch to branch. We haven't quite accepted the norm of walking down the street with monkeys in the trees. It was a wonderful counter moment, the hassle of the zooming human beasts in their metal boxes and the wild beast of the jungle. How do the monkey's adapt to those humanoids?
The town of Coco is a typical beach town containing one main street, dive and tourist souvenir shops, and fishing boats hovering in the bay. Surrounding the town are many time-share resort developments and several Real Estate firms, including REMAX and Century 21. The obvious presence of gringos in Costa Rica is evident everywhere. It would not surprise us if the "prospective marina in Bahia del Coco" were built, and then this small town blossom into another Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
We should share that Costa Rica is definitely a country with a higher cost of living and a much better infrastructure, even though the occasional pothole will take us for surprise. Children are required to go to school through their High School years and it is true that there is no Costa Rican military. Of all the Latin American countries, Costa Rica has the reputation for having a stability government and thus, no civil wars have occurred for a very long time; in fact there is no military presence.
After stowing the provisions, bidding our friends goodbye (s/v Our Tern is heading north and east (via Mexico and then Hawaii) on their way back to Seattle, Washington), we were ready to move onward.
We left Bahia Panama on the third of January, southward bound.